Are you ready for a downturn?

Recession readiness scores 5 factors: emergency fund, debt-to-income, job security, income diversification, investment diversification. Total /100 with Readiness rating.

6+ months emergency fund, <20% debt-to-income, stable industry job, 2+ income sources, well-diversified investments = 80+ Recession-Resistant. Under 40 = Fragile - priority to fix.

Use annually. Many households score well in expansion but didn't when recession hits. Building readiness during good times prevents distress when economic shocks arrive.

A worked example

Try the defaults: emergency fund of 6, debt-to-income of 25%, job redundancy risk of 4, secondary income sources of 2. The tool returns 72/100. You can adjust any input and the result updates as you type — no submit button, no reload. That's the real power here: seeing how sensitive the output is to one or two assumptions.

What moves the number most

The result responds to Emergency Fund (Months), Debt-to-Income %, Job Redundancy Risk (0-10), Secondary Income Sources, and Investment Diversification (0-10). Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

The formula behind this

5 components 0-20 each. Total /100. Rating: 80+ Resistant, 60-80 Prepared, 40-60 Moderate, <40 Fragile. Everything the calculator does is shown in the formula box below, so you can check the math against your own spreadsheet if you want.

What the score tells you

Headline financial numbers — income, savings, debt — each tell part of the story. This calculation stitches several together into a single read you can track over time. The value is in the direction, not the absolute number.

What this doesn't capture

The score is a composite of the inputs you provide. Life context — job security, family obligations, health, housing — doesn't appear in the math but shapes the real picture. Use the number as a prompt, not a verdict.

What to calculate alongside this

One figure by itself is fragile. The financial resilience score, the household financial stress calculator, and the accounts payable turnover calculator cover adjacent ground — the answer to any one of them changes how you read the output from this tool. Worth a few minutes each, honestly.